A light song of light swells up in the dark
times, in wolf time and knife time,
in knuckle and blood times; it blooms
nocturnally, like a Chinese flower,
bright against the midnight.

        from 'Twelve Notes for a Light Song of Light'

Kei Miller's work was acclaimed by the distinguished Jamaican writer Olive Senior as 'Some of the most exciting poetry I’ve read in years... An extraordinary new voice singing with clarity and grace.' A Light Song of Light sings in the rhythms of ritual and folktale, praise songs and anecdotes, blending lyricism with a cool wit, finding the languages in which poetry can sing in dark times.

The book is in two parts: Day Time and Night Time, each exploring the inseparable elements that together make a whole. Behind the daylight world of community lies another, disordered, landscape: stories of ghosts and bandits, a darkness violent and seductive. At the heart of the collection is the Singerman, a member of Jamaica's road gangs in the 1930s, whose job was to sing while the rest of the gang broke stones. He is a presence both mundane and shamanic. Kei Miller’s poems celebrate 'our incredible and abundant lives', facing the darkness and making from it a song of the light.


Cover photograph: Detail of balmyard constructed from zinc, Jamaica. Copyright © Kei Miller.

Contents

Day Time

Twelve Notes for a Light Song of Light   
This Zinc Roof   
Some Definitions for Song   
Until you too have journeyed   
Some Definitions for Light (I)   
If this short poem stretches   
Notice to the Public, Please Observe   
Some Definitions for Light (II)   
The Longest Song   
A Short Biography of the Singerman    
Brochure   
What Can Be Accommodated   
The Singerman’s Papa   
The Colour of the Singerman’s Songs   
In Defence of Obeah   
Questions for Martin Carter   
Call this apocalyptic propaganda if you must   
For Cornelius Eady   
Thinkin Home   
Some Definitions for Light (III)   


Night Time

The Lost Prophecy of Alexander Bedward   
Abracadabra   
Unsung   
Prologue   
De True Story of Rolling Calf   
De True Story of Nathaniel Morgan   
De True Story of Coolie Duppy   
De True Story of deLaurence   
A Praise Song for Sudden Lights
A Creed   
A Smaller Song   
For the Pilots   
A Short History of Beds We Have Slept in Together   
The Law Concerning Mermaids   
What We Thought Were Signs   
On the Ninth Night   
The Singerman’s Other Job   
A Parting Song   
A Nine Night Song   
Noctiphobia   
Some Definitions for Night